


Turf War Is Not A Good Time For Observing Ducks, But That Will Not Stop Pearl And Marina Because Pearl Is Very Distractible And Marina Is Very Gay, And Pearl Is Gay Too

by floralQuaFloral



Category: Splatoon
Genre: Ducks, F/F, Fluff, Turf War, pearl and marina are too gay for turf war: part 2
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-14
Updated: 2019-07-14
Packaged: 2020-06-28 02:20:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,631
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19802716
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/floralQuaFloral/pseuds/floralQuaFloral
Summary: A oneshot in which Pearl and Marina look at some ducks.





	Turf War Is Not A Good Time For Observing Ducks, But That Will Not Stop Pearl And Marina Because Pearl Is Very Distractible And Marina Is Very Gay, And Pearl Is Gay Too

**Author's Note:**

> I started writing at 4 AM and now it's 6:30 and I haven't slept. Oops?
> 
> Don't ask me why the title is so long. Ask AO3 why they gave me 250 characters for the title box. I think this is squarely on their shoulders.

Marina kept a close eye on her surroundings as she inked one of the far sides of the stage, an area not presently occupied by the enemy team. She ducked into her own team's ink for a fraction of a second before popping back up and releasing a quick series of shots over the enemy's bright orange turf. There didn't _seem_ to be anyone in her corner of the stage, friend or foe, and the frequent glances she took at her map display indicated that most of the activity was all the way at the opposite side, but she remained vigilant as she painted over the ground.

Halfway through one tank's worth of ink, Marina heard the high-pitched ping of the communicator. She cleanly divided her attention between watching for signs of enemy activity, inking turf, and listening for the message she knew would follow from her teammate.

What came was far from the expected "Booyah" or "This way" that normally followed the communicator's pinging, though. Instead, it was a full sentence, spoken by not just any teammate, but Pearl - _"_ _ _Yo__ _ _ _Marina___ _ _, you gotta jump to me, now."__ An unusual message, and an unusual request to ask for a specific teammate, but Marina didn't dedicate much time to pondering the inefficiency. Instead, she crouched down into octopus form and built up pressure for a Super Jump. Pearl's message sounded urgent, and whatever trouble her girlfriend was in, Marina's first response was to protect. Barely a moment after the communicator went silent, Marina was already rocketing through the air towards Pearl's location, scanning the ground as she soared over it.

She was a little confused for a moment, before she touched down - during her brief flight she had seen all four enemy players, and none of them were particularly close to Pearl. Still, she held her weapon high when she landed.

"Yo, over here." Pearl spoke from a good ten feet back, near the edge of the water. It took Marina a second to realize she wasn't even using her communicator, just talking directly to Marina. Not against any rules, exactly, but certainly questionable during a public Turf War. Marina kept her eyes on the surrounding ground, all painted in friendly ink, as she responded.

"What's the situation?"

Pearl's response was much less useful than Marina would prefer. "Get over here and check this out, yo." Marina dropped her guard a moment to look towards Pearl.

The inkling was facing away from her, towards the water at the boundary of the stage. She was leaving forwards, almost all the way over the edge, and she held her weapon in a loose grip by her side. Marina looked back, even though she was pretty sure by now there wasn't going to be anything going on. They were quite a ways back from where all the conflict had been. "Tell me what you called me here for. I'm not seeing any threats or issues."

Somehow, in the blink of an eye, Pearl was beside her, one of her hands clamped around Marina's forearm. Grabbing was, of course, _absolutely_ against the rules of Turf, and Marina knew her girlfriend was completely aware of this. But then again, Marina had her own bad habits of bodily pushing or pulling Pearl out of harm's way, or occasionally lifting her into a hug, and on one singular occasion pulling her into a kiss in the middle of a public battle--

Point being, Marina wasn't exactly the greatest at following the no-contact rules herself, so she only hesitantly decided against calling Pearl out on the infringement. Instead, she gave up on keeping an eye on their surroundings (it wasn't like she could shoot if someone _did_ show up, anyways, with an Inkling attached to one of her arms) and allowed Pearl to pull her back towards the waterline.

"I brought you here to check this out, babe! Just look!" Pearl's exasperated tone matched the urgency of her movements as the two moved the short distance back to the edge of the stage, and she thrust a hand towards the open water. Marina tilted her head to try and see what her girlfriend was pointing at.

"... To look at the ducks?"

"Yeah!" Pearl swung her arm, still outstretched, in a rough circle as if to emphasize her gesture at the group of birds. "I never noticed there were ducks on this map." She turned her head to look up at Marina, who was still examining the flock, her brows furrowed. "... I thought they were cute, yo," she said, suddenly pressed to justify herself. One of the ducks gave a soft call and poked its beak into its feathers.

Marina took a moment to give a slow nod, her expression smoothing warmly. "They are pretty cute," she said, watching the one bird preen. Pearl beamed and nodded her agreement.

Rather than continue the conversation, the girls took the minute to stand together and enjoy the moment, watching the ducks float peacefully on the water.

Familiar pinging lit up in both of their ears, and both girls stood up a pinch straighter in surprise. One of their teammates' voices rang out with an excited _"_ _ _Booyah!"__ before the line went silent again. Marina stepped back from the water and turned towards the direction of battle - they couldn't see anything happening from their current position, but the distant sounds of ink weapons gave away the general position of the action.

"I don't think now's the time for that, though. We need to get back in there and support the team."

Pearl had her map display pulled up when she responded. "We're still winning. I think the two other dudes have got it covered for a little longer." Marina took a look for herself and found it was true. The map was still filled with far more purple than orange, and it didn't look like the enemy players, even with their numbers advantage, had been successful in pushing against the two active teammates. Against her better judgement, Marina turned and gave the ducks another glance. There was something so temptingly pleasing about just watching them, especially with Pearl by her side.

"... Yeah, they seem fine..." She looked quickly at her map again before closing it up again. "So when did you notice these? I've never seen any ducks on this stage before." As she talked, Marina walked back to the shore and sat down.

Pearl sat beside her, close enough for their arms and knees to be touching, smiling with her eyes trained back on the small group of birds. "Just about a minute ago. I called you over basically as soon as I saw 'em 'cause I wanted you to get to too."

"Aw, that's sweet." Marina leaned affectionately against Pearl for a moment before shifting back, taking her hand. "You're such a softie."

Pearl grumbled and glared at the ducks, but it was clear by the faint tint of purple coloring her cheeks that she wasn't actually offended. "Only for ducks..." she mumbled. "...And for you..." Marina laughed softly and smiled, looking at her girlfriend through the corner of her eye as she growled her unintentionally sweet excuse.

"I love you too, Pearlie." The way the older girl's blush deepened proved endlessly pleasing to the octoling by her side.

In the silence that followed, Pearl and Marina turned their attention back to the peaceful sight on the water. The first duck had finished grooming itself; now two others had taken to smoothing over each other's feathers in a similar manner. A wave sent the whole group bobbing up and down for a moment, and the observing cephalopods scooted back a few feet to prevent the water from washing over their sitting spots.

The ending whistle rang through the air, signaling the end of the match and catching both girls completely off guard. They sprung upright from their sitting position, and one of the ducks gave a noisy startled quack and flapped its wings rapidly.

"No way. Isn't there supposed to be the thirty second warning?" Marina looked toward the center of the stage and took a hesitant step towards it.

Pearl shrugged. "I dunno. Maybe we missed it," she answered casually, trying to mask her surprise. It was given away by the embarrassed purple flush over her face, mirrored by her girlfriend. With another beat of delay, they headed to the center of the stage, where the other players were gathering around Judd and Li'l Judd.

It wasn't a particularly close round, as it turned out - that had been evident even from just the short walk from the shoreline to the center of the map, during which Pearl and Marina had seen barely a droplet of orange ink on the turf. Despite the total clarity of which team had won, though, everyone waited with bated breath until the two cats revealed the winning team: Purple, obviously, with over 70% coverage. Thanks only to what had to be divine intervention, nobody seemed to notice Pearl or Marina's suspiciously low turfing points, and their teammates didn't comment on their absence from nearly half the fight.

All in all, Pearl considered, the distraction had been absolutely worth it. They hadn't gotten in any trouble, they hadn't even lost the game. While she was pretty sure the look Li'l Judd gave her as they left was one of scorn, she opted to ignore it as she and Marina left the tower. No matter how the tiny cat would judge her for it, Pearl had no regrets as to how she had ended up spending the time, sitting with her girlfriend, enjoying an unexpectedly peaceful moment together, and from the happiness she could glean from Marina's expression as they left the tower, she suspected the sentiment was shared.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading this far! If you've got anything to say (thoughts, feedback, or an order to get my sleep schedule back on track), please do leave it in a review. I always appreciate getting those. If you enjoyed the fic, Kudos are also very nice!
> 
> If you're following my Valentine's fic... I'm hecka sorry yo ;-; ADHD has been being a galactic punk for the last two weeks so I couldn't get around to updating it. I wrote this to try and get back on top of writing so hopefully I'll be able to get the next chapter out really soon. Thank you for your patience!


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